UC Blogs
Manage almond pests always
Spring is here, almonds are blooming beautifully and farmers have not a care in the world. Actually, even though no crop-damaging insects or diseases may be present at the moment, the UC Integrated Pest Management program advises farmers to manage pests year round.
Not sure what you should be doing? UC IPM has just published an online video outlining the year-round IPM program.
How to Manage Almond Pests Using the Year-Round IPM Program is a narrated how–to guide for growers, PCAs, and others who work in almonds, showing what needs to be done throughout the season to stay on top of pest problems.
Going back and forth between the year-round IPM program and Pest Management Guidelines, the video gives an excellent look at how these two resources are used together to manage key almond pests such as navel orangeworm, peach twig borer, and shot hole.
The video takes you deeper into the Guidelines with tips on taking dormant spur samples, monitoring for shoot strikes, and looking for predators and parasites of key pests. Also included are instructions on using treatment tables to choose pesticides that are effective while examining effects on honey bees, natural enemies, and the environment.
The video is broken into six chapters so you can easily view the section of the year-round IPM program that you need help navigating.
Additional information is available in the online video Pest Management Guidelines for Almonds.
For more information about other year-round programs available see the general video tour.
Special thanks to the project advisory team: Walt Bentley, UC Cooperative Extension advisor emeritus; Lucia Varela, UCCE advisor in Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties, and Pete Goodell, UCCE advisor based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier. All three are affiliated with the UC Statewide IPM Program.
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Honey bee greets a Spanish lavender blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee nectaring Spanish lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of honey bee partnering with a blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Mostly Moss
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Photos by Launa Herrmann
Public-private partnership seeks to revitalize Shafter research station
The 80-member San Joaquin Valley Quality Cotton Growers Association has leased the 80-acre Shafter research station from Kern County, recruited University of California researchers and initiated talks with the Kern Community College District and a number of private groups to bring cotton research back to the historic facility, reported John Cox in the Bakersfield Californian.
In addition, ag companies are expressing interest in using some of the station's vacant greenhouses, labs, storage sheds and land to conduct their own research on crops ranging from potatoes to grapes.
The Shafter Cotton Research Station was established by USDA in 1922. In 1996, the station was deeded to Kern County and management of the station shifted to the University of California, according to a retrospective compiled by former station director Lyle Carter.
The station closed in 2009, but UC Cooperative Extension in Kern County leased a 40-acre plot to continue research in almonds and vegetables, according to Brian Marsh, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Kern County.
The historical marker at the cotton research station.